When corporate meets the clergy
More companies are turning to chaplains to counsel their employees.
By CHRISTINA REXRODE
Published January 8, 2007
TAMPA - Ken Atkinson walks through the halls of AnazaoHealth Corp., and everybody says hi to him.
There are about 100 employees at this office, where nuclear and pain management medicine is created, and Atkinson knows at least a little something about all of them. He knows who loves the beach, who is getting married, who is artistically inclined.
Some days, he even makes the coffee in the break room.
But Atkinson doesn't work for Anazao. The CEO brought him here to shepherd his employees through their hard times, to offer them guidance that the HR managers just can't.
There are hospital chaplains, and there are military chaplains. Ken Atkinson is a business chaplain.
He works for Corporate Chaplains of America, a Raleigh, N.C., organization that doles out chaplains-for-hire to companies in the market for a spiritually minded Employee Assistance Program.
Maybe company bigwigs are starting to think their souls need some saving. Seminaries across the country are beginning to offer concentrations in workplace ministry. Marketplace Chaplains USA, based in Dallas, said the demand for its services has grown quickly following the Sept. 11 attacks and high-profile corporate scandals. Marketplace serves more than 300 companies, and president Gil Stricklin said that about 70 of them were added to the roster just in 2006.
'Let's set up a time'
CCA has four chaplains in the Tampa Bay area; Marketplace has seven.
The organizations follow game plans that are almost identical, except that many Marketplace chaplains are part-timers who also work at churches, so they have fewer workplace charges.
Here's how the CCA program works: Each chaplain is assigned two to eight companies, for a total of 650 employees. Each week, the chaplain visits for a minute or two with as many employees as possible.
Mark Dillon, president of Tampa Bay Steel, hired CCA six or seven years ago. He described his chaplain's encounters with employees this way: "He'll say, 'How are you doing?' If you say, 'Fine,' he's going to keep walking. If you say, 'Well, my aunt called and she's sick,' he'll say, 'If you want to talk about it, let's set up a time.' "
"The way they do it is so nonthreatening," Dillon said. "And they don't interfere with the work schedule."
The idea is that those short visits will build trust and familiarity. Then, when employees face crises - the death of a loved one, a car wreck, a child in jail, even just a flat tire - they'll call the chaplain if they need help.
Atkinson, who is 46, sleeps with his pager beside his bed.
"We tell them, 'We want you to call us at 3 a.m. We don't want you to wait till 7,' " he said.
Sometimes, people just want a mediator when they're arguing, or someone to stand next to them when they pick music for a memorial service. The chaplain's role is often to provide immediate help, then make recommendations for other support.
Dwayne Reece, a vice president at CCA, said once a company establishes a chaplaincy program, 60 to 70 percent of employees use it within the first year.
Shields Moore, 77, is a former hospital and fire department chaplain who works with 10 other part-time volunteers as a chaplain at the Tampa International Airport. The chaplains there held a memorial service when an airline employee was murdered, and conducted a wedding in the third-floor chapel for a New Jersey couple, who had met at TIA while waiting for their luggage.
Stepping in to help out
The client companies of Marketplace and CCA say they want to show their employees they care but don't have the training or resources to handle every hospital visit or broken heart. And most people don't want to take those problems to their boss, anyway.
When Naomi Bruce, a pharmacy technician at Anazao, suffered a brain hemorrhage last year, Atkinson visited her in the hospital as she was waiting for emergency surgery, and asked if he could pray with her.
"I needed you then," Bruce recently told Atkinson.
Companies benefit, too, because turnover decreases and loyalty increases, Stricklin said. He rattled off a list of Marketplace's success stories, including a fast-food franchiser in Austin, Texas, whose turnover rate dropped to 90 percent from 300 percent two years after it hired Marketplace.
"It's just good business to love people, to help people," said Stricklin, who spent 22 years as an Army chaplain. "You don't have to have an MBA from Harvard to know that."
Said John McKibbon, CEO of Hotel Management in Tampa: "Our associates tell me it's one of the best benefits that we offer."
It costs about $10 a month per employee to bring in a corporate chaplain. In-house chaplains still exist at some companies; Reece and Stricklin both said that Tyson Foods, based in Arizona, has several dozen.
Jake Beckel, the CEO of AnazaoHealth, said he's heard one complaint since he hired CCA. It came from a senior manager.
"A year and a half later, after he had a heart attack ... he said, 'You know, he (the chaplain) really was a lifesaver to me,' " Beckel said.
Christina Rexrode can be reached at (727) 893-8318 or crexrode@sptimes.com
Corporate Chaplains of America
Based: Raleigh, N.C. Started: 1996
Total chaplains: About 100. (All are full time.)
Chaplains in Tampa Bay: 4
Marketplace Chaplains USA
Based: Dallas Started: 1984
Chaplains across the country: About 2,000 (About half are part time.)
Chaplains in Tampa Bay: 7